Sweet
‘The best time to plant a tree is twenty five years ago and the next best time is today.’ This proverb has helped me to appreciate Jesus’ saying about ‘faith like a mustard seed’ moving mountains. Fifty seven years ago my mum and dad had ‘hope, faith & love’ trees growing inside them and an invisible thing called ‘a home’ was growing up around them. Inside that home a seed from one of those trees quietly dropped into my soul and soon a young ‘hope, faith & love’ tree was growing inside me as well: but a tree with bitter enemies. Even jealous enemies, who seemed offended that such a thing would dare to exist. So strong was the opposition to the presence of this young shoot of hope that I sometimes wondered if God himself was mocking it. But thanks to that tree, numerous Mount Dooms that showed up like ships in the night have in fact been ‘uprooted and cast into the sea’: mountains pushed out of my life because something greater and stronger was growing there. I’m glad it was planted so long ago and I relish the sweet air that flows from it.
